Fact: Children are healthier and more successful when they spend adequate time playing outside.
· They get exercise
· Build social skills and cognitive functioning
· Provides a place for risk taking and problem solving
· The vitamin D boosts immune systems and helps prevent bone problems, diabetes and heart disease
· Linked to less depression and hyperactivity
· Contributes to healthy brain and emotional development
Why it matters: Kids today spend 5 ½ hours a week outside, less than half of what their parents spent. They also spend an average of six and a half hours a day in front of a screen, more than double kids in 1995.
What you can do:
· Outside time doesn’t have to be pintrestable or planned; the yard, park, woods, cul-de-sac, porch, just get them out!
· Once they are outside, you don’t need to entertain them. Let them be bored and figure out ways to entertain themselves - less work for you.
· Eat snacks and meals on the lawn.
· Anything you do in the house, you can do outside; read, color, board games, dance…
· Put the screens away - not down - away. They will learn more valuable skills from Mother Nature than they will ever learn from a screen.
